


A Little Tent

by Liadt



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/M, Fandom Stocking 2014, Huddling For Warmth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-02-28 16:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2739605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liadt/pseuds/Liadt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jo and the Doctor find themselves locked in a cold, dark and damp cell on a distant planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Tent

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Azarsuete as part of Fandom Stocking 2014.

Down in a basement cell in a stronghold on the planet Ascalep, Jo Grant squinted through the small grilled window, which looked out on to the parade ground outside. She glanced to her side at the Doctor. He was propped up against the damp wall, catching up on some sleep. 

It had been an exhausting day. After leaving the TARDIS, they had run into a group of rebels who had mistaken them for spies working for the local dictator. Once they had convinced the rebels they weren’t going to expose where their secret hideout was, the real spies turned up with troops to catch the group. Jo had thought they had run far enough down a system of caves to escape, but a shortcut to freedom had led to a dead end and capture instead.

She hoped the chase hadn’t strained the Doctor’s two hearts. OK, so he was an active man, who could put the young soldiers in UNIT to shame with his stamina and he must be tough to have notched up a couple of centuries, but was he old for a Time Lord? He did look pretty good for his age, so that was good, right? However, if he had caught something on this planet what could she do? If an aspirin could kill him, what other first aid for humans would be harmful to him? To want to help and not know what to do troubled Jo. She then reminded herself that the Doctor had had catnaps before to restore himself. If he felt that a rest would help him, then he knew his own health best, after all something similar had happened at Stangmoor Prison and that had turned out all right in the end, for the Doctor’s health anyway.

Jo went up to the bars of the window and stretched her arm as far as possible through a gap. She picked flowers, took hold of colourful, shiny pebbles from outside and arranged them on the floor of the cell. It looked as if a bowerbird had started building a nest there. As Jo was pushing a stem of a fern between two small rocks, the Doctor stirred. Jo’s actions caused him to furrow his brow. 

Jo noticed the Doctor was no longer asleep. “Oh, Doctor, you’re awake. No, I’ve not gone loopy, not much more than normal anyway,” she said, with a smile. The little collection of rocks and plants did look incongruous in their gloomy jail. “I thought, well, as you were trying to take me to Metebelis III, I’d bring it to you. The plants that are most like the ones from there that is. I mean, I don’t know what Metebelis III looks like, but you made it sound smashing, so I selected the nicest bits from outside. And you did say the vegetation on Ascalep was very similar.”

“It’s a lovely gesture, Jo, but I think you were also doing it as a distraction from the situation we’ve found ourselves in.”

“It isn’t the best place is it? I wouldn’t have come here willingly.”

“I wouldn’t have either. The Ascalep guards should have sorted the damp out before accepting guests,” said the Doctor. 

Jo wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed them.

The Doctor looked concerned. “I’m not surprised you’re cold; your sleeves are soaking wet from the ground outside. Come here and I’ll rub them dry.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Jo, through chattering teeth. 

“Miss Grant, it wouldn't be sensible to catch a chill in this place - you’ll catch your death,” said the Doctor sternly.

“I suppose you’re right.” Jo went over to crouch next to the Doctor, although she though he was being an old fusspot. 

“I thought you were going to demonstrate a special Time Lord arm drying technique,” said Jo, a few moments later.

“Hmm, I under-estimated the amount of water the material of your shirt could soak up.”

“Whatever you thought, I bet it’s half of what your shirt cuffs could,” teased Jo.

The Doctor raised an amused eyebrow and examined the frilly cuffs of his shirt. “Are you any warmer?”

“Not really, no,” admitted Jo. She almost regretted giving her fun-fur jacket away to an injured rebel, to wrap his arm in, now.

“Why don’t you share my body heat with me? My cape is large enough to keep two warm,” said the Doctor. He stood and took his cape off and they both sat down together with it wrapped around them.

“Doctor, if I really snuggle up to you under your cloak, so I can't be seen, do you think you could convince the guards I’ve escaped?” asked Jo, cuddling up to the Doctor.

“You could try - you are the escape artist after all. Did I ever tell you about the other Metebelises?”

“There are other ones? I hope they weren’t blown up and replaced by number three," said Jo, her voice muffled by the cape.

“No, Jo, there are a whole series of them. When I was a child a wandering monk told me a tale of how they all became interlinked with each other…” The Doctor fell silent. Unlike the Doctor, Jo hadn’t had a nap and had fallen asleep on the Doctor, using his chest as a pillow. The Doctor smiled affectionately and put his arm around her. The tale could wait for another time.


End file.
